Update: 5 February 2024

We have updated the Course Overview section.

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Climate change raises many political questions. Why has it been so difficult to implement ambitious climate policies? What are the political obstacles to a clean energy transition? What are the prospects of reaching just and effective climate agreements at the international negotiations? Many talk of ‘climate justice’, but what does ‘climate justice’ mean? Who should pay for ‘mitigation’, ‘adaptation’ and ‘loss and damage’? How do climate policies affect the politics of development?

This programme enables students to understand the politics of climate change in all its diversity – in different societies across the world, and at the global, regional and the national level. The course is taught by leading figures in the field. The programme introduces students to competing theories, core political concepts and the key debates surrounding climate politics. In this way, we develop a better understanding of the political factors affecting one of the greatest challenges that humanity faces.

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This Masters in the Politics of Climate Change gives students the knowledge, skills and vision to translate critical insight into practical change in an increasingly complex, competitive and fragile world, to respond to one of the greatest challenges humanity is facing.

Climate change is a political problem – it raises fundamental questions about the nature of our societies, what drives our politics, and how major transformation can happen. To address this all-encompassing crisis, we first need to ask some of the big, complex questions that underlie everything: What shapes how we see climate change within wider contexts? What do we value, and how is this changed by climate change; does this reality prompt us to rethink assumptions about the world we’ve been taking for granted? What is justice in relation to climate change? Who gets a say in how it is governed, and who benefits? What should be the purpose and remit of politics – and of the economy? What drives change – and what are the power dynamics behind this? What kind of world do we want and need to create?

This course equips students both to critically engage with these major questions and to develop a deep understanding of how they can inform and improve public policy on climate change. It addresses the politics of climate change in all its diversity and at all levels, from the local, regional and national to the global, and through different perspectives and methodologies, including political theory, political economy, international relations, public policy and governance. The course is taught by leading scholars: from the meaning of climate justice to the political economy of energy transitions, the power dynamics behind climate politics and sustainability transformations, environmental public policy and party politics, how climate policy relates to other core policy areas, and the global politics of development, decoloniality and North-South relations.

Find out more about our ground-breaking climate change research here: Climate Change Work | University of Warwick and about the events and activities of the Environmental Politics research cluster here: Environmental Politics